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Diamond Mountains
Ari

My adrenaline was still pumping. I couldn’t believe I just did that! All I could feel was hate for those dogs, they had hurt Chrissy, and they had imprisoned other ponies. In the question of fight or flight, it was a no-brainer. Literally, my thoughts faded, and I just reacted with my instinct.

When I started to think again I was looking at Chrissy. Going with my instincts I nuzzled her and she nuzzled back.

“Took you long enough.” She sounded so weak to me. Her wound had bled enough to leave a puddle, a green puddle, but still enough to make me concerned. How much blood can a pony lose?

I would have continued sending her love if I wasn't interrupted by a disgusted voice.

“A Changeling!” Looks like Chrissy was right about how ponies viewed her, I was really hoping she just had some self esteem issues.

We both turned and looked at the couple, both ponies had their ears folded back in fear with their eyes darting around the room. The stallion was trying to keep the mare behind him, which would have been sweet if their attitude didn’t grate on my nerves. If a pony didn’t know better they would say the couple had seen a ghost with how pale their faces looked. But it could have just been my entrance, or the body pooling in its own blood in the middle of the cavern, or even the fact that one dog escaped. But their statement said it probably was the changeling mare.

I wasn’t worried about the dog that got away, he looked terrified for his life. I could have killed him, if I’m honest I would have killed him if I had remembered to. But I had bigger worries than a lone dog.

Might as well hear how bad it was...I just stared at them, waiting to hear the discrimination I felt coming.

“What are you doing with that Changeling?! I thought you were here to rescue us?” I didn’t know how to respond. The way the stallion said changeling irked me. Almost like saying it was synonymous with dirt. He was awfully presumptuous…I mean, of course I would free them but I had really come for Chrissy.

I couldn’t help the pettiness in my response, really, he had it coming. You never act disrespectful to a potential rescuer, it just wasn’t done. But I guess they couldn't help their response, Chrissy did invade their country recently and all. However, she was still my friend and friends don’t let other friends get disrespected.

“I’m sorry but we haven’t met yet. My name is Ari. This is my friend Chrissy.” Although I kept a cordial tone I stressed the word ‘friend’.

They both blinked rapidly after that, I may have broken their small minds. A pony being friends with a ickie Changeling?! The scandal!

The turquoise mare spoke for the first time, “My name is Azure Heights. This is my friend Barium Seal. Thank yo-“ I could see where this was going, they honestly still thought I was here for them.

“I was actually coming to rescue Chrissy. I didn’t even know who you were until now. But I suppose since I will be undoing her shackles anyway…” I trailed off on purpose then, call me what you will, I wanted to tease them a little. I was just a little pissed off at this whole situation. You have your coping methods, I have mine.

Chrissy bumped her nose against my neck, someone must be hungry.

“Speaking of chains, I hope that dog has the keys to them, cause I dropped the last set a couple caverns back.” The ponies were actually kind of funny when i said that, their faces went from shocked, to happy, then worried. I think Chrissy was enjoying their performance if her grin was any sign. A mare after my own humor.

Not waiting for a response I trotted over the body. Like the rest he had no clothes, therefore no pockets, and therefore no keys. My ears fell, I had to go all the way back!

“What’s wrong?” Azure asked but I think she knew already what I was going to answer.

“No keys. I have to go back.” I looked back at Chrissy, “Are you going to be all right if I run back and grab the keys? Do you want some more food first?”

Both ponies looked horrified at my question.

I really didn’t have time for this.

“What is the matter with you two? You act like we are going to do something horrifying.” I laid down beside Chrissy to prove my point. “It doesn’t hurt you know.” Chrissy sighed when our bodies met, melting into me a little.

Cocking her head, Azure asked, “So you don’t become brainwashed and weak?”

“Azure!” Barium reprimanded as he was looked between us with fear. Yes, the partially bound Alicorn and restrained, injured changeling, so scary.

I had to stop myself from face hoofing at her ludicrous idea. No wonder Chrissy was so shocked that I fed her, if this was what ponies thought.

“Nope, I don’t even feel her feeding and I most certainly am myself. No brainwashing here.” Barium looked interested now. “So your feeding her right now then?” Almost like he couldn’t believe it was this easy. I almost couldn’t myself, I hadn’t heard of this, this, emotionvore before I landed in this world.

“Yes. I’m feeding Chrissy right now.” She was here too and she had a name...Okay, I'm a little sensitive about their racism still.

Chrissy had remained silent the whole time, glancing at her I saw that her eyes were shimmering. I went to cover her with a wing only to feel a resistance. They were still bound.

“Hey Chrissy, do you think you could untie my wings? I can’t reach the knot from here.” She regarded the knot in the center of my back a second before setting to work on it. Something sharp touched my back and I almost jumped up before I realized it was her teeth. They were a little sharp.

Why did she have canines if she ate emotion?

Wings now freed I raised them to their full span, a wing tip just brushing the couple and startling them out of their fish impression. My wings were so stiff, but I felt better. Yes, my magic was still bound, my face still stung, and I was hungry but I felt lighter being able to move my wings. I settled one over her and let her feed. I was surprisingly comfortable against her hard chitin.

Once again, Barium ruined the moment.

“You’re an ALICORN!-" Yes, just yell that in this echoing cavern, "-Sweet Celestia I didn’t know there were any besides the princesses.” Azure was practically jumping up and down , “This is incredible, are you-“ She continued to barrage me with inane questions, like did I like cake too? It was a little silly so I just closed my eyes and thought of glorious cinnamon buns, vastly superior to cake.

I was so hungry. I hadn’t had a full belly since I got here…Two days ago I think, unless I had been unconscious for a while. It didn’t really matter though, this moment was quite relaxing, you know, for cuddle feeding in a dim, stinky cavern.

However our companions weren’t so inclined to enjoy the peace, they had stopped questioning me when they realized I wasn't answering. But apparently they still had needs I suppose. “Are you going to get the keys?” I raised an eyebrow at Barium, could he not ruin a moment for me. “I-I mean what if the dog comes back?” Azure nodded rapidly at that.

I would kill the dog after what he did. But Barium was right, we should leave while we still could. I had had surprise on my side the last two times I faced the dogs. But Murphy’s law said my third time wouldn’t be as lucky.

Shooting an apologetic look at Chrissy I separated from her, I could have sworn I heard a whimper. “Barium, I hate to admit it but you are right. I trust you can all make friends while I get the keys. If the dogs return just scream.” I gave the ponies a pointed look: don’t mess with Chrissy.

With one last glance I left back down the way I came, starting at a quiet walk I realized something. I didn’t know where the exit was.

I was unconscious when I was brought down here so how was I going to get out?

What would the ponies do once they were free?

Settling down my emotions I broke into to a trot. Ahead the cavern opened up, three openings. Through the one across from me I continued on my mental map. Speaking of a map…No, I had to at least release them first then I could double back. I still needed, no, I wanted to know where in this world Equestria was. Somehow I don’t think my ‘maker’ was going to accept me not knowing where I’m going as a reason for not doing what he asked and I didn’t want to find out what he would do about any failure.

The tunnel went by faster this time but my heart was racing. What if they heard me? What if I the last victories were flukes?

The torch light gleamed ahead and I broke into a gallop. If I’m going to make noise I might as well be quick about it. Another tunnel and I reached my starting point. I paused, the air felt different. Inhaling I took stock of the smells: feces, wet dog, and fresh air. The musty smell was gone. I must have been closer to an exit than I thought. Luck did like me after all! Now all I had to do was free everyone and we could go back here. Just four tunnels to choose from, I mean, what could go wrong?

Shaking the thought from my head I grabbed the keys and galloped to the next cavern. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.

Finally I was back and my heart calmed down. The ponies hugged each other and Chrissy smugly said, “Told you so.” Sounds like there was some doubt about my return, but, I was happy at the thought that at least Chrissy trusted me to return.

I still hate keys.

After fumbling around with the keys for what felt like an hour I finally had Chrissy’s shackles off. The ponies also learned some new words, but they did need some educating. Chrissy enjoyed the words at least.

Unshackling her horn shackle was a fun experience though. We both had horns, very long horns if the unicorn beside us was any comparison. Now you had to see the key to believe it, it was so tiny I thought I might swallow it if I moved it wrong. My horn was also shackled so I couldn’t just magic my way out this and my hooves-although willing to act like hands sometimes- objected to holding keys. This lead to me trying to not hit our horns together with every turn, yes, this shackle was fitted together with three bolts, so there was lots of turning. They were basically safe locks for the horn. And despite my best attempts I still managed to knock our horns together, it didn’t hurt but it did make my stomach coil in a way that wasn’t needed right now. Chrissy’s moans didn’t help my problem in the way I needed right now either.

Her horn free, I passed her the key. She looked at it, then me, with a nervous expression.

“Could I get a little love here?” I nodded; of course she wasn’t feeling good after that. I glanced at her chest wound, at least it had stopped bleeding.

Laying down I heard her sigh in relief when chitin met fur, before setting to work on my shackle. I think she was knocking horns on purpose this time, for one thing she could have used magic to float the key but didn't, and one time I swore she tapped her horn against mine three times in a row. That gave me shivers, horns are sensitive to both pain and pleasure. I knew she was moaning low on purpose this time, I caught her peeking at me out of the corner of her eye. Every single touch, I swear she could feel my stirring and wanted to rile me up. Maybe it feed her more but I couldn't let her enjoy it with an audience. So I Stubbornly ignored the sensations and the audience, the audience wasn’t making it easy though. I wasn’t a changeling but even I could feel the anticipation in the air. Azure was even leaning closer to me, as if that would speed up the process.

Barium was starting to look annoyed when my shackle finally fell off, I felt a rush of energy fill me, not the get and go type of energy but an internal feeling that passed through me like caffeine. Like when my wings were bound I felt heavy, when my magic was bound I felt emptier and more tired than I should be. Not a bad feeling, just a wrong feeling.

My magic field carried the key to Azure’s horn and unlocked her shackle. She sighed in relieve, maybe it isn’t just me that feels that emptiness from the shackle. I jingled the keys in my magic, I wasn’t doing all the work, and Chrissy was still hungry so I was stuck like this.

While Azure and Barium were occupied with the keys, Chrissy gave me a serious look. “Listen, before we leave we need to find the dog's communications room. When they…The Diamond dogs, they mentioned that I’m worth a bounty now. I need to find out who wants me.” I started to imitate a fish now, what do I say to that? I’m not too surprised really; I mean she did invade a country, someone was bound to want her dead. It just was a lot to take in. “I don’t want to hinder your mission. I still would like to travel with you, help you set this world right. So noling else has to starve…”

“Sorry, that is, I would love to have your help! I don’t know the first thing about…Well I have never had to save a world before, much less one I know nothing about. But I’m afraid all I can offer in return is free food and a better world at the end of it.” I chuckled in nervous joy as something was actually going towards my goal.

“That’s all I could ask of you.” She whispered as her head made itself comfortable on my back.

Going with the whisper mood she was in I added, “I think I found a strategy room when I was trying to find you. It had some books, a map, and a desk. It sounds like a good place to start looking.”

“Mmhmm” Looking over my wither I could see Chrissy’s eyes fluttering shut.

I liked her thinking, sleep sounded good and the shared warmth was soothing my adrenaline fried nerves to the point that I almost did.

This time is was Azure that interrupted. “Are you ponies coming?” While I was ecstatic on the inside that she was over her fear of Chrissy I was missing the personal space that the fear had allowed. She was literally in front of my muzzle, eye to eye in fact. I swore she was staring at me stars in her eyes. At this point i'm not dismissing that, magic was possible here after all.

I was grateful when Barium came up muttering and dragged her to the tunnel entrance by her tail. Creepily enough she never broke eye contact with me the whole time. He seemed in a hurry to leave and I wasn’t about to stop them.

After several minutes I gathered the motivation to speak again, “We should check out that room I guess.”

“Mmhmm.” Not a muscle twitch.

“You have to get up.”

“Mmhmmmmmmm.” She turned her head and nuzzled into my neck.

“We need to get out of here.” Also, I was really hungry, berries just didn’t cut it.

“Fine.” She moved her head off my body but didn’t move to get up.

I stood and looked down at her; she looked up at me. “Fiiiinnne,” Chrissy conceded.

Although she stood rather stiffly she was fine, but I still stood wither to wither with her, ready in case she collapsed. After wobbling for several steps she woke up enough to walk and we picked up the pace.

We started down the tunnel, comfortable in our silence. There wasn’t anything to really say. She was feeding, I was enjoying the feeling of her being there, and I wasn’t alone in my mission anymore.

I led her to the plank door without running into any gaurds or Azure and Barium. I paused, had I closed the door last time?

We entered and Chrissy seemed to come to life. She glanced at the map briefly before making her way to the desk. Chrissy started rummaging through it as I took the time to look at the map this time.

I couldn’t read it.

The northern part of the map was what looked like a wall of ice, underneath the ice area was a castle with a blue heart beside it. In the North West there was a forest with small mountains dotting it, in the north east a gray mountain range was labelled in the strange blocky symbols that were written over various landmarks. Following the mountain range, it continued to zig zag down the map with a different label for the center east and the south east portions. In the southern most part of the mountain range it turned into a red area with what looked like volcanoes drawn over it. The red volcano are turned yellow as it got closer to the center, south west went from red to dark gray before connecting to another mountain range. This mountain range had crudely drawn griffins by its peak. In the center west a beautiful green area lay and stick Minotaurs drawn across it. In the center of the map was another castle.

Although the map’s depictions were interesting, there was so much mountains! Which one was the Diamond Mountain range?

“Chrissy , where are we on this map? I can’t read it.” She looked up from her small stack of papers, trotted over and gave it a look then looked at me in what I guess was surprise.

“You can’t read this? It’s Equus, your speaking it right now…” Her eyebrow was raised.

“Actually I am speaking English. Those letters aren’t English.”

“I guess Equus and English only sound similar then…” She trailed off again this time in thought

“Chrissy?” She jumped out of her thoughts and I looked between her and the map.

“Right, right. We are here-,“ She touched the mountain range behind the yellow area, ”- And the princesses are here in Canterlot.” Her hoof went to the castle in the middle of the map. I nodded and she returned to her papers.

How was I supposed to get to them and what would I do once I got there? Ask them to just stop doing what they do? I doubt they would listen to a complete stranger. Alicorn or not, I would sound like a lunatic. Like if I had suggested that we needed to start moving earth’s sun and moon.

So, how do I change their minds, and convince them of the crazy reality that is happening?